Arnold Schwarzenegger was briefly held by customs officers at Munich airport on Wednesday after allegedly failing to declare a €26,000 (£22,000) Audemars Piguet watch the Terminator star was planning to sell at an auction in aid of his climate crisis charity.
Schwarzenegger was taken aside by officers who searched his luggage and found the watch, which the actor had allegedly not declared on his arrivals customs form.
A spokesperson for the main customs office in Munich said: “We have initiated criminal tax proceedings.
Schwarzenegger said he tried to tell officials that the watch was being donated to his Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, and is due to be auctioned off at an event in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel on Thursday night.
Customs officials are said to have accompanied Schwarzenegger to a bank to withdraw cash, before he was allowed to continue his journey.
The watch was made especially for Schwarzenegger by the luxury Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet.
Other lots at Thursday’s auction, which Schwarzenegger will host, include “a training session with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself”, as well as artworks, signed exhibits, and “experiences from the worlds of sports and film”. »